The Red Bar Radio Timeline
Thanks to the Facebook group for writing this fantastic timeline, charting the history of Red Bar to this point. First Era 03-05: Mike, Ms Steele and Ron (who was Mike's friend and the son of a Russian) do RED Bar 05-06: Black cohost Kelly Williams joins. Nice Peter (musical friend of Mike and now mainstream Youtube sensation for his Epic Rap Battles) appeared and freestyled a song called "I Make Soup Out of Black People". Kelly's wife heard this song, and demanded her husband leave the show. Kelly left For a brief stint a successive black cohost is added by the name of Panama Black. Panama Black left Dani joined. Ron left Some Chicago comedians (including Ken Barnard, began appearing on Red Bar). During this time, the show was syndicated on (if I recall correctly) an internet radio network that also gave them airtime on the "real" radio (AM dial). They used to do an hour for them, and then they'd switch off the network and do another hour just for the podcast stream - it was a weird situation like that. They used to be able to swear on the latter half, but not on the former. After disagreements with Mike, Dani left the show. SO ENDS THE FIRST ERA OF RED BAR Second Era Early 06 There was a guy called Biggs. He was great! He answered an AD on Craigslist and joined Red Bar. He had a friend. He was called Kyle. He was... more on that later! There were interns. Some girl, but also a dinosaur. Her name was KristEN. Not Kristin. She liked stressing this point. She became known as 'EN the intern'. She was a big girl. Mike would play the Jurassic park theme when she walked about. She left crying. She would later be discovered to be doing stand-up (circa 08. Show is on the feed). Back to Kyle - why do Kyles always fuck up Red Bar?! Kyle got offended by something. He was perpetually late, perceived as 'annoying', yelled and brought too much "drama" to the show, eventually the listeners + Mike made him leave. He stormed out... permanently. Biggs had a choice, his friend or his career (Fritz in reverse?!) He chose his friend Kyle. He left. They had their own podcast. Had. The word is had. Mike has an on-off rivalry with Patrick Melton of Nobody Likes Onions. Mike appears of several episodes of NLO and things seem fine. The two even socialise at the Podcast Expo, where Mike and Patrick make fun of everyone, whilst sitting on a couch in the hotel. However, NLO superfan Shooby reveals that Mike D had convinced Shooby to attain a batch of Archos MP3 players, under the belief that Mike D was to give them out in a competition for Red Bar. Instead, Mike covertly sells them all to liteners and profiteers. SO ENDS THE SECOND ERA OF RED BAR Third Era Late 06 - 07: Mike meets Blerdo McBrido, Mike Bridenstine. He introduces him to Chicago comics. There are a series of comedians through the door. TJ Miller, Blanco, Tony Sam, Fritz, McGowen, Brido, Holmes, Gauthier, Pat Brice (RIP), Kyle Kinane, Prescott Tolk, CJ Toledeno, Ken Barnard, Nate Symonds, Lauren Bishop (she's a commedienne, she's a perfect 10) Fojas (remember the name), Jeff Hansen and more! A man called Suge White would write songs about the cohosts: Ghost Panther, TJ Miller is Drugs, She's a Comedienne, she's a perfect 10. Enter Paul. Paaaaaauuuulll has a dad. His dad bought him podcast equipment and he set up a rival podcast in Denver, later LA. He was the only caller EVER allowed to run bits on air. He has something to do with RadBearRadio (I think). Pat Brice dies. Sadly. Nice Peter appears on episodes. David Angelo appears and the fabled 4 is formed mid-07ish: Brido, Fritz, McGowen and Angelo. Every episode featured one of those 4. The rotation begins. SO ENDS THE THIRD ERA OF REDBAR Fourth Era Somewhere in the above there is a Red Bar Radio all-freestyles aftershow that was put on the feed. One of my favorite Red Bar pieces of content. Ever. Starring Brido, Tolk, Holmes and Bishop. 07: Blerds! - A great web video series starring Brido and most of the comedians mentioned so far. January: Brido, Fritz and Mike stage an ambush. Trenton Willy - local Chicago zane, wearer of "skeleton pants" and all-round try hard - was invited on the show for an interview. Mike continued to bomb sound effect him, mock him off mic (Trenton's roomate calls in and pleads for Mike to stop mid-interview) and hijack the interview for evil. (Show 1/6/07) Jordan Voigt-Roberts is the director of Blerds. He joins in on a show. The fans make fun of him until he leaves. He remains an enemy of Rebbah. Lorraine Brocco. Here is why the archives only start in early 07: ALLEGEDLY (it can't be said out loud because then you go to jail) Mike had Indian lesbian neighbors. He would make fun of him. Mike dissapeared like he has now. Where's Mike? Well Mike was in court ALLEGEDLY getting sued and called a "Hitler Youth leader". The court traded Mike going to jail, for him removing all the archives instead. He did this, moved appartments, and it's all hush hush on the radio. Suge dissapears. April 07: The Red Bar Radio Cho! If there were 5 episodes only of Red Bar in existence, this would be one. Perfect. Lou Stanza! Good friend of David Angelo makes regular appearance. He's not a queer. You understand? Rosie O'Donnell bashing. Trump is hailed as a new god of Red Bar. Krang. The Dad from the Wonder Years Mike makes fun of Gauthier's reality show starring Victoria Beckham to her face. Fritz quits. Brido is Gauthier's boyfriend. He does not. Around this time, a Puerto Rican named Bradley Fojas is a jerk to Mike (he's like Old School John Ming). It is insinuated that Fritz also quit because Mike was mean to Fojas. Mike is nominated for a Podcast Award by Todd Cochrane (pronounced Cockring). Mike believes it is a scam to drive traffic to the site (he is afterall nominated for best show formatted for a mobile device) and publicly withdraws. Very publicly. Mostly by making fun of Todd's weak voice ("he's like a skinny DJ Qualls") for an hour with Hannibal (now writer for SNL and general comedic don) and Steve O'Harvey (pronounced Bebo Barbie). Daryl Amandes... Oh Daryl. Daryl was a great rapper and a Chicago comedian. He hosted a show with Mike. It was great. Then Daryl told a story about going to a wedding. There, his friend talked about how the Wedding had been blessed by AMMA. AMMA was a spirit, a ghoul, a ghost. Mike did not like that Daryl let this happen without intervening, and kind of believed in AMMA. Daryl almost (but didn't) storm out. It. Is. Awkward. Mark from the UK is a thin fingered fuck. He is a listener who visits Mike. Mike has a fight with Britney Hobbs. Britney Hobbs is the woman Mike is dating at the time. She was introduced to him by Brido. They fight in front of Mark. Mark says this online. He is generally a weirdo and invades Mike's bedroom whilst he sleeps. Mike hates Mark. Pegathith - Brido's favourite mythical beast, after a love interest for April Kaprelian (hey-o!) Brido moves to LA SO ENDS THE FOURTH ERA OF RED BAR Fifth Era (in many parts) The last thing Brido said before leaving for LA: "There's this guy. He's called Dean Carlson. He'll be good on the show" - he actually said this, I remember. LATE 07-08: Dean joins - The DEAN ERA beginsChainz! - Chainz being the incarceration of James Fritz (whilst quitzed) on Mike's wall. He used to rattle his chainz and be mad and eat lean cuisine. He later had a brother called Brainz. There was a cover of Cyprus Hill by Dean and Mike, where the hook was "Fritz insane, got some chainz" - the second best piece of standalone content after the FIRST freestyle aftershow. Angelo leaves for New York Dean at first appears randomly alongside other comedians, then full time as permanent cohost. The first since Biggs and Kyle. Dean convinces Fritz to unQuitz. He does! Fritz cries milk - WHAT THE FUCK Couple of things are happening simultaneously throughout this time. One of those is MONTE! Monte is big. Monte is a slob. Monte likes to do comedy shows where he puts up a powerpoint of burgers. He is on the show a few times. Mike and Dean (behind his back) go mental and start making fun of him. At some point - maybe this one - a fat comes on the show, and listeners come up with movie titles involving his weigh for an hourt: "Gangs of Pulled Pork" - one of the best lines in Red Bar history. Monte finds out about the fat jokes. Confronts Dean. Dean and Mike continue. Monte then ATTACKS Mike in a parking lot. The Montman got Mike. The Barmy - the paid content section for bonus stuff - is created Mike becomes friends with Brian Berris; host of the excellent (to this day) WRECKLESS MEDIA RADIO. There is ZERO reason why a Red Bar fan should not also be a massive fan of WMR. Brian lives in Detroit. Mike goes to Detroit. He meets Corpo, Evil Greg, Brandon and... Katie. Katie is a girl. He is in love with. Katie lives with Mike. WMR and Red Bar go camping. Flaming machetes! A video makes it's way onto the Barmy and the VIP Katie gets weird love letters from a guy she works with. Comedians on the show right now are McGowan (still), Fritz, always Dean, Steve O Harvey, Jeff Hanson, Joe Kilgallon. AND SO THE ERA OF DEAN CONTINUES: Early 08: Joe Killgallon is mental. He attacks people physically and verbally. He is a man amongst boys. We love him for this. He has various fights with the show, against the show, for the show. Joe is Joe is the show. Mike is working in an office as a graphic designer with divorced, middle aged Gene. That description sums up Gene. Mike eventually leaves the office. In my opinion it was because of those damn chocolate cherries... Okay so now Mike Stanley is on the show more and more. Stanley is bald. He produces a video called Hypocrites with Mike. Enter Slobsalon: listener turned best friend. Absalon (real name) is a listener who is now great friends with Mike and Dean. He invites them, and inadvertently the whole of Red Bar thanks to an errant address giving out on air, to his wedding in the woods. He basically thought D&D was real, and never moved on from that reality. SHOW BREAK OF 08!!! - 5/20 to 7/2 of 2008 Mike is tired and jaded of Red Bar. He quits for two months (many people doubt he'll ever be back). Show is off air. Show is back! Mike comes out absolutely swinging. He maybe bats 1000 for the next few months. The rest of 08 is legendary. Some of the best stuff. There is a Red Bar live show. Dave Odd (known creep and owner of snakes and a girlfriend), Dean, Joe Killgallon and Mike at the House Cafe. A listener there is called Mini-Penn. He looks like mini Penn-Jilette the magician (realise that spelling is wrong). There is another live show: ROCK DOG! Katie has a step dad. A guy who was born in the rockin-50s, raised in the rockin-50s and still lives in the rockin-50s. He puts on a rock concert in his back yard every year. Yes. All of that is as crazy as it is true. Wreckless Media (who are friends with Katie) and Red Bar put on a joint live show. Corpolongo (sometimes referred to as Corpo Longo and host of WMR) has a maaaaassssiiiivvvveeee back. His back is made fun of. Rock Dog is good. All the way through all this (since Angelo) a guy called Dean From Australia is calling in. Dean Mayes in this group. He is a nurse. A terrible father. An annoyance. He's a nice guy, but eventually he felt 'unappreciated' after having been made an online show producer, and decided being a personality on Keith and the Girl more rewarding. Dean From Australia leaves the phone. Another caller is Tim from Boston. During the entirety of 2008, Tim became known as the "World's biggest liar!". Tim promised to buy Mike and iPhone. He didn't. He promised to make donations. He didn't. He also told Red Bar that he was a Boston detective. After meeting the Red Bar gang in November of 08, Mike and Fritz began having suspicions as to the validity of this story. After phone calls were made to Boston PD, it was revealed that Tim had lied and fabricated the entire story. He was not in Chicago for official police business, he was visiting for a furry convention (I'm not kidding, honestly, go check the episodes). Tim was a habitual liar, and his fraudulent activities were uncovered. Multiple phone calls were made to his father by Mike ("I'm sick as a dawg"). Tim From Boston remains a Red Bar fan, and is a member of this group. I won't give out his name, but it's Timothy Jon-Boisclair. Basically that rounds out 08 and early 09. I'm sure I've missed loads, but people will let you know in the comments. Mid- late 09: This is where my dates will be way off (I'm not as good at remembering later stuff). There is a marathon show. It goes well. Then people get drunk and start wrecking it. Drew Michael (who nobody knew) says something about Katie's vagina. I don't know what, to this date. Mike kicks him out. There is a party at a girl comedians house. Mike almost incites some Mexicans to turn the place over and murder everyone. McGowan kicks them the fuck out, and that's the bottom line because McGowan just said so. Mike Lebowitz appears on the show. Mike is awesome. He has a retarded kid, so maybe his semen is a little wonky, but Lebowitz is one of the best comedians on Red Bar. Known for sayin "Ma DICK!", and for his calamitous debut show. Lebo got incredibly drunk and began playing a guitar. Caller, after caller, after caller, after caller phoned to vote Lebo off the airwaves. Eventually - after much polling - Lebo was kicked out. He would return and worm his way into our hearts. David Angelo (now in New York and currently sparring with wit on Twitter - @dwangelo) starts, and shortly after, ends his own podcast. Despite deserving it's own (slightly more modest in size) canonical passage, Angelo's solo show should not be forgotten and is still worth a listen. It's humor was only matched by its incisive political comment. It also starred the very funny Taylor Williamson, who goes on to be in the finals of Last Comic Standing alongside Myq Kaplin, who is a regular on KATG. Small podcast world. Lauren Vino's masturbatory dipping bowl Beethovan is in the Attic! Youtube it, there are helicopters. So the show is solidly Fritz, Dean, Kilgallon Stanley and some O'Harvey here and there. Junior Stopka makes his debut! Stanley goes to jail because of an arrest warrant dating back to a driving violation. He then starts to tour more, and generally falls off the map a little bit. There is a first shitty DeanVD. He produces it amongst millipedes in his basement apartment. There is a second DeanVD! A good one apparently, though I never heard it. There is a Kilgallon DVD. Red bar makes and then loses a very good friend. GLENN SHADIX (Otho from Beetlejuice) joined the shows on multiple occasions for phone interviews; during that time he is one of the most gay men ever on Red Bar and constanlty tries to tell everyone about his meetings with Tim Burton. Why were they meeting, did Tim even knew who Glenn was, what did they talk about, why did Glenn feel the need to tell us this? All these questions went unanswered, after Shadix slipped, fell and died in his home in rural Alabama September 7th, 2010. Glenn Shadix: pour one out. END OF THE SWEET DEAN ERA, THE FIFTH ERA OF RED BAR Sixth Era Late 09 to Early 2010 Begginneth the descent Kyle Lane enters. Interns are hired. There is Barmy content where they are shown being destroyed by an American Idol panel of Mike, Fritz and Dean. A reality TV show is planned. Mike needs multiple ideas if he wants to pitch to LA execs. Dean writes a pilot for Vampire Boss. It is about a boss, who is a vampire and goes on a wheely chair. That is as developed as the idea is. All the pitches fail. The Red Bar TV show is canned. Mike hate Asians eating ice cream. The show is hilarious. Funnier than it's ever been. I can't think of anything legendary that happens in the middle.Baby Boy (aka Bryan Babylon) begins appearing on the show. He is known for backpacks and blunt smoking (of course if any of Babylon's future employers are reading, this is a joke. I made it up. All this is a lie). Mike often yelled at him (playfully) for being late and smoking joint, after joint, after joint... after joint on the air. He used his appearances on Mike's podcast as an excuse to take two hours out of his schedule to roll weed sticks. The man lives a charmed life. Kyle Lane and Mike D start a comedy club. It is a business. They put up comics. They make money. Here is where I'm not sure how much I want to write, because it's frankly not my business and I have no idea. But... You know when girlfriends and boyfriends go on "breaks", but people don't understand whether they're allowed to fuck or not. Well Mike does (again, who the fuck am I to say). Dean ALLEGEDLY tells Katie (I claim no real knowledge of what went down). The break becomes permanent. Dean and Katie are together. Dean leaves the show. The real victim in this is me, who loses out on those sweet, sweet Red Bar/WMR crossover shows - perhaps some of the best Red Bar. END OF THE SIXTH (mini) ERA OF RED BAR Seventh Era Dean is gone. Stanley is gone (ask others why, I'm not gossiping). Sheehan is the all time worst person ever, but we never find out why until maybe a little later. Glenny goes deadix. Late 2010 - Early 2011: Kyle and Mike are running the club. Enter Sahar. Sahar is an intern. She is trop gros. *THIS IS ALL MY OPINION OF PEOPLE I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT AND I DON'T CLAIM TO. I THINK OF ALL OF THIS AS ONE LONG RUN OF HIT COMEDY TV SHOW FRIENDS. I DON'T CLAIM TO KNOW THESE PEOPLE ANYMORE THAN I KNOW ROSS AND RACHEL*. Shahar is... kind of easy prey. Men like having sex. She seems open to doing it. Maybe she bones Mike's brother. Comedians are weirdly nice to her. It comes off as creepy to me. They are sort of hitting on her. Their game is to defend her from Mike's attacks (not that she ever seemed perturbed by them), so they can get in her pants. I don't know. Maybe if everyone involved jacked off, then reviewed their decisions, they'd treat people differently. That's my opinion. By the way, couple of acronyms I missed: MBDD - Mike's Brother Dan David. Known for doing extreme stunts and skateboard tricks in studio. Owner of most extreme in studio stunt is Jeff Hansen's little brother. He super glues pubes to his face at the behest of Mike whilst interning. I like Jeff Hansen, by the way. DATGTBAHGTC - Dean are there going to be any hot guys there Carlson. Dean's old nickname. I remember the funniest Red Bar shit being about Dean touching the end of his dick with other guys. Classic. Haba - As in "set sail we leavin the haba now". An old intern called Marc Alexandre Falzone put a "rap" video on Facebook. Dean and Mike destroy him for this. Another great episode. ANYWAY... back to the timeline. Please, please, please give Gentlemen Scumbags a listen. It's excellent. Started (properly) early 2011 (?). It is Mike Bridenstine's podcast with Mike Burns. It's excellent. Early 2011: Mike tells the Elan story. Another must hear Red Bar moment. I can't type it. You just have to listen. Amazing. There is a Red Bar Comedy roast. People keep saying Sheehan raped Katie. That's not true, but maybe someone who was at the even could give you a better idea. James Fritz become permanent cohost. Show is good. NF era. Drew Michael becomes more involved in the show and Mike's life. Neegar (Nice and Eager) is the second hottest Weezer cover band in town, after the only other Weezer cover band in town. Neegar meets Charlie Sheen. All of a sudden the show goes off line. The comedy club is over. You joined this group. You read all the docs posted on this group. I wrote this. I thank you. Goodnight. NEW UPDATE: REDBAR 2.0 DIE 2013 REDBAR 3.0 For a while mike started putting out 5 shows a week, old bars and new episodes (this lasted a couple of weeks. RedBar 7.0 the DonFall Mike exposes Patrick of Nobody Likes Onions for foolery Mike joins Compound Media Mike leaves Compound 'DEEP DISCOUNT ERA ' (2017) Anthony Cumia (Tha Bitah, Chompah, Freddy Krueger, The Count) runs Deep Discount ads on Compound which to Mike's discovery is a phishy company, and criticizes Cumia for it. Several Tweets and blocks from Cumia to the fans later... The Barmy is renamed The Anthony Cumia's Scars Club -Mike begins giving cash prices to live listeners -"Fools TV" Becomes regular content